The fallout from Donald Trump’s controversial and poorly executed immigration order claimed its first victim Monday night. Mere hours after Acting Attorney General Sally Yates sent a memo to lawyers at the Department of Justice urging them not to defend the White House’s directive because she was not “convinced it was lawful,” the Trump administration swiftly issued a statement announcing her replacement. Furthermore, the letter used unusually draconian language to describe the career prosecutor's actions. It noted, for instance, that Yates had “betrayed” the D.O.J.; it described her stance on immigration policy and the nation's borders as “weak.” The high-profile firing, which reminded some veteran lawmakers and journalists of Nixon’s 1973 “Saturday Night Massacre” in which he professionally defenestrated Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, capped off a tumultuous weekend on Capitol Hill.

Trump’s executive order, and the manner in which its hasty roll-out was managed, has created tremors throughout the swamp. The E.O. blindsided top lawmakers and caught the heads of the Homeland Security, and the State and Defense Departments largely unaware. It has quickly emerged as the defining—and unfortunate—crisis for the nascent Republican administration, exposing the flaws in Trump’s management style and revealing the chaos in the West Wing.

As widespread confusion besieged airports and protests erupted throughout the country on Saturday, tensions flared between White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and the populist faction in the president’s inner-circle—Stephen Bannon, Trump’s senior strategist, and Stephen Miller, the White House policy director, who were the architects of the executive order. Some blamed Priebus for not having had better control over the execution of the order and for not adequately communicating with lawmakers and the public during the backlash. Others cast blame on Miller, who as The Washington Postnotes, emerged “as the public face of the order and the populist wing of the White House.” On Monday morning, Joe Scarborough lambasted Miller over the directive. “This weekend was a disgrace, and it’s all on your shoulders,” said the host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

The “creative tension” that Trump is said to encourage among his staff and inner circle has reportedly left Priebus distrustful of the Bannon-Miller alliance. “A little bit of undercompetence and a slight amount of insecurity can breed some paranoia and backstabbing,” one White House official told the Post of Priebus. “We have to get Reince to relax into the job and become more competent, because he’s seeing shadows where there are no shadows.”

The executive order also blindsided a number of key cabinet members and their agencies. John Kelly, Trump’s secretary of Homeland Security, and Defense Secretary James Mattis were reportedly left largely in the dark. Kelly has said he was “kept totally out of the loop,” Politico reports. And Mattis “is said to be particularly incensed,” as he “was aware of the general concept of Trump's order but not the details,” the AP reports. “The problem they’ve got is this is an off-Broadway performance of a show that is now the number one hit on Broadway,” former Speaker of the House and longtime Trump ally Newt Gingrichtold the Post.

Republican leadership, too, was left scrambling. One source described the White House’s coordination with Congress to Politico as “terrible,” with both Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell unaware of what the executive order would include ahead of time, and only learning of the final language of the action on Friday night. “These executive orders were very rushed and drafted by a very tight-knit group of individuals who did not run it by the people who have to execute the policy. And because that’s the case, they probably didn’t think of or care about how this would be executed in the real world,” a separate congressional source familiar with the situation told Politico. “No one was given a heads-up and no one had a chance to weigh in on it.”

Apparently, and perhaps most controversially, the White House did tap a number of Capitol Hill staffers for their expertise in the drafting of the order. After signing nondisclosure agreements, a small group of individuals on the House Judiciary committee worked with the Trump transition team on the language of the executive order, Politico reports. In a statement, one aide said, “Some staff of the House Judiciary Committee were permitted to offer their policy expertise to the Trump transition team about immigration law,” but added, “the Trump administration is responsible for the final policy decisions contained in the executive order and its subsequent roll-out and implementation.” Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte was reportedly aware of the congressional aides’ involvement. The White House’s secrecy and lack of communication irked a number of Republicans in Congress. “We were trying to clean up their damage,” one senior Republican source told Politico. “The thing was getting totally mischaracterized. The way it was implemented was screwing over a lot of people.” One senior aide expressed exasperation with how the order was implemented, “We’re getting tired of the chaos,” the aide said.

The weekend’s events also prompted President Barack Obama, less than a fortnight into his post-presidency, to speak out. According to sources, Obama is striving to strike a balance between opposing his successor and being selective on the issues that warrant his commentary. On Monday, his team settled on a measured response that read, “President Obama is heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country.” While Democrats know that Obama could be a strong oppositional voice, there are fears that he will grow to be too prominent, or worse, be dismissed by Trump and rendered ineffective. One person close to the decision-making asserted to Politico that “He’ll know the right time,” and that President Obama “will have the best sense of when he needs to do it directly.”